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photo gallery | | Southport's
Schumacher - speed king Basil Davenport | |
Southport - sands of timeIn
the 1920's Southport was the most important place in Britain for motor racing.
There were no tracks or roads at the time, so people used the beaches - and Southport
became a hot spot for the racing fraternity. Thrills, spills, speed and
incredible danger were the heady cocktail of ingredients that brought huge crowds
to Southport beach to watch the races. Racetracks offering road conditions
in Britain only became popular in the 1930's, so Southport reigned supreme. Wealthy,
daring young men, took up the challenge to push the barriers of speed to the limit.
Each
week new records would be set.
Some paid for it with their lives, other
claimed the glory in exciting races across the sands. Speed kingOne
of the top drivers was the Michael Schumacher of his day - Basil Hope Davenport.
He was born in 1903 and came from a wealthy Macclesfield mill owning family.
Basil
won so many races, it's said that he had engine oil in his veins. But he
was very different from the drivers of today - he was an amateur who built his
own car, with the help of his three brothers. They called the car The Spider
- and it became a name feared throughout the racing world. Basil's longest
race was The Hundred Mile Race held at Southport in 1930. One hundred thousand
people turned up to watch - an incredible number - and the winner was Davenport. Children
of speedInside Out met up with Basil Hope Davenport's children, Peter
and Ann, who live near Wilmslow. | Peter
and Ann Davenport reunited with The Spider | |
Amazingly they'd
never been to Southport so Inside Out decided to take them back in time. We
also made our own bit of history by scouring the country to bring back the cars
that last raced at Southport 80 years ago. We also tracked down two of the
original machines that Davenport raced in, which were lost to the family after
Basil died in 1979. We were able to take the silver Spider in all its glory
and another Davenport car - the BHD - to Southport to relive their glory days. Life
of speedBasil Davenport spent his lifetime in love with speed.
When
beach racing faded after the Second World War, he took up hill climbs, breaking
records wherever he competed. He was still racing well into his 70s.
But
thanks to Ann and Peter his legacy lives on in Southport's sands of time.
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